Rules of engagement in the 21st century favor the bad guys, whether they are in Gaza or LA.
There are many things in life where getting a perfect balance is all but impossible. Two brothers growing up will swear that their parents always favored the other brother. Dividing assets after the passing of one’s parents generally is not equal, with some kvetching all but guaranteed that somebody made off with more than the afflicted party received. Life is not necessarily fair and man’s best efforts may fall short.
Now imagine an important ballgame. The managers come out to exchange lineups. The chief ump tells them, “We have decided to give Boston 6 runs before we start. We believe that the Yankees will accept our decision.” Obviously starting a baseball game six runs down sucks, but the umps decided—what can one do? When terrorists or miscreants go up against an army or law enforcement, the good guys always start six runs down. They have legal, publicity and possibly constitutional limits in regards to their range of action. This is the reason why Hamas made war. This is the reason why the left made the George Floyd and anti-ICE riots. Because they can and the other side is hog-tied in its response.
Let’s look at Hamas and Israel. When Hamas entered Israel through over 100 holes in the border fence and with a total force of 6,000 members and regular citizens, it had absolutely no rules of engagement. If they saw someone, they could kill them. They had no orders to spare lives or act in a civil manner. And the results were accordingly gruesome. Entire families burned to death, 70 percent of the bodies showing signs of torture, numerous women raped and murdered, kidnappings of live and dead Israelis. On the Hamas side, there were no rules and the international community has come to accept this state of affairs and unofficially sanction it. It’s like the Russians when their associates shot down a Malaysian airliner over Ukraine with a Russian-supplied missile. Everyone knows who did it and nobody expects a single person to be held accountable.
On the Israeli side of the ledger limitations are imposed by the press, the U.S. (as weapons supplier), the international community, the international courts, Israeli courts and the strict code of the IDF. An IDF soldier a few years back killed a wounded Palestinian terrorist in Hebron who had harmed the soldier’s friend. He claimed in his defense that the terrorist was attempting to grab a weapon. He was found guilty and sent to jail. Israeli planes have called off bombing missions due to the presence of children, and there have been many times when Palestinian terror heads would surround themselves with children as insurance. Whatever Israeli forces do will be dissected by an antagonistic press. International prosecutors will look for any reason to hold officers and political leaders responsible for war crimes. The net result is that Israel is put into a straightjacket while trying to prosecute a major war. One can map what Israel should do according to purely military considerations versus what Israel can do based on potential legal, optics or diplomatic repercussions. In World War II, the two paths would have been mostly identical. The U.S. famously destroyed an ancient monastery in Italy because commanders believed that German forces were still located there. If Israel had been allowed to fight an all-out war, it would have been mopped up in three months.
And the same situation occurs in the U.S. with lefty Antifa/anti-ICE protests. The protesters have no boundaries as to their actions. They can throw bricks or set things on fire, even at the risk of killing someone. They can ransack stores or physically assault officers. As we saw in the summer of 2020 and we are seeing again, blue state politicians can work against the federal forces or prevent local law enforcement from doing its duly sworn job. The difference between what the FBI, National Guard and ICE should be doing versus what they are allowed to do is a canyon. They may use rubber bullets, paint balls or pepper spray. They will not be using live rounds, whose application would bring a rapid end to all rioting and violence. The days of the Korean rooftop shooters are long gone and today they would be thrown in jail for years while the rioters would go free after a few days.
The J6 rioters were handled quickly and aggressively because all of the groups involved against them were of one mind. The events in the Capitol did not last long as Capitol Police and other resources worked together to arrest those who entered the building and the handful who actually did damage or harm. The lower courts treated the offenders as outright insurrectionists (with no weapons!) and held them or sentenced them for long terms. If the same standards had been applied to the George Floyd cohort, the riots would have ended in a few days and the bad guys would still be sitting in prison.
The Department of Justice (DoJ) and FBI must look into the legal limits of how to deal with anarchists and violent protesters like we see today in LA. Administrative detention, enormous fines, loss of voting rights or other privileges: the U.S. needs to even the playing field so that the Antifa guy or the illegal alien gal will think 10 times as to whether it’s worth it to venture out onto the streets of the city of angels. Throw a block at an officer or official vehicle—six months of administrative detention. Threaten an ICE officer or dox the same, $250,000 fine payable at your local DMV. The problem we have is that the anarchists play by asymmetric rules. They know that they can cause serious bodily or physical damage and maybe get arrested, only to be released by a local Soros prosecutor. They know that the local police and DA are either neutral or on their side, and they also know that the feds have limits as to jurisdiction and potential action against them. This has to stop. The feds need to determine the legal threshold for live fire and get the information out to the forces in the field.
If Israel had been allowed to fight Hamas at 1 percent of what Hamas did, the war would have been over in a flash and the terrorists would have been at the border wall begging for mercy. If U.S. forces can be empowered to make the local terrorists pay for their violence and destruction of property, the game changes for the better. Blue state leaders have an interest in supporting the violence and destruction: these are their constituents. The United States writ large does not. Political and police leaders who shirk their responsibilities should be relieved of duty or arrested, and the U.S. should take political and policing control of the problem areas until things are brought back to normal.
Those who wish to destroy the U.S. should be either dead, detained, or deported. This is not a game and it is not a drill. The problem should have been solved with the college campus protests or the Antifa riots of 2020. End the rioting; favor the law-abiding over the law-breaking. Use force; restore order.